The so-called "Summer of Hell" that was supposed to greet Chris Christie in his final year as governor seems to have instead unfurled its fury on his Democratic successor.

Days of NJ Transit train delays and cancellations in what is being dubbed as "Summer of Hell 2" have raised the heat on Gov. Phil Murphy, the Democrat who lamented the decline of the agency from a model of efficiency to a "national disgrace."

But for all the moves Murphy has made early in his tenure to improve the agency — a large infusion of cash, increased hiring and "substantial progress" toward installing positive train control safety systems — making NJ Transit better is proving itself to be the long-term project Murphy said he anticipated.

Transit officials owe the recent problems to two primary causes: a high rate of staff absences and an aggressive schedule of installing safety equipment.

Whatever the reasons for NJ Transit's troubles, it is Murphy's burden to bear the anger and criticism of commuters now, not Christie's.

“Starting today we will begin to measure success by actually getting better, not because NJ Transit didn’t get any worse or because somebody else had a worse year than we had," Murphy said when he introduced the agency's new executive director, Kevin Corbett, in January.

In an interview Tuesday, Corbett acknowledged the agency's shortcomings and, as a commuter himself, said he empathized.

"We’re out there, we certainly feel the pain," he said.

The backlash in recent days has been harsh.

Republican lawmakers who held their tongues in recent years as the agency was starved of cash have called for legislative hearings and questioned the Murphy administration's accountability.

Commuters vent regularly — and vulgarly — on social media about delayed, canceled and overcrowded trains. And some political commentators skewered Murphy for vacationing in Italy while the agency's struggles pile up.

In addition to the train delays and cancellations, the air conditioning in NJ Transit's flagship Secaucus Junction station failed over the weekend, leaving already frustrated riders to sweat it out as temperatures inside the building hovered around 90 degrees. For at least part of the day the agency's train ticket vending machines and My Bus Now system were down, which it said was due to a "Verizon network issue."

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Positive train control

The agency is in the midst of installing positive train control, collision-avoidance technology that Congress required a decade ago and NJ Transit was supposed to have installed by the end of this year.

Federal officials have expressed concern that the agency will achieve that goal, but it is making progress through an aggressive plan to install the hardware. To move the process along, NJ Transit in June discontinued trains on the Morris & Essex, Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast and Pascack Valley lines.

The hardware installation was 13 percent complete at the beginning of the year and it is now at 52 percent, "which is an unprecedented leap," Corbett said.

The agency must have 100 percent of the hardware installed by the end of the year or it risks losing access to operate on Amtrak's Northeast corridor. By completing the hardware installation, the agency could extend the full installation deadline to 2020.

NJ Transit must eventually install the system on 11 routes totaling 326 miles of track. Federal authorities said the technology could have helped avoid the 2016 NJ Transit crash in Hoboken Terminal, which killed one person and injured 110.

Staffing shortage

Commuters use umbrellas to shield themselves from the rain as they wait to board an NJ Transit Train on Fair Lawn Ave in Fair Lawn on Thursday morning June 28, 2018.(Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)

NJ Transit has struggled to retain and recruit workers. Metro-North, operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was found last year to have hired nearly 100 engineers since 2015 while NJ Transit hired just four.

Other agencies, such as Amtrak and the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, compete to hire new engineers and have done so at a higher pace than NJ Transit.

Murphy has pushed for more hiring, but the agency is about 50 engineers short of a full roster. In 2009, NJ Transit had 391 engineers, Corbett said, but it now has 335 active engineers.

To help ease the crunch, NJ Transit announced last week that it is suspending rail service to Atlantic City from next month until early next year.

A class of nine engineers is expected to graduate next week, of which eight will be directed to the lines most affected by delays, Corbett said.

But one significant factor in the unexpected delays and cancellations, he said, has been crew absences. Summer is a popular time for vacations — both planned and impromptu ones. In many cases, Corbett said, dispatchers haven't learned until recent mornings that some conductors or engineers would not make it into work.

"The real problem are those who are doing this, they wake up and decide they want to play hooky," Corbett said, adding that it's "disappointing," but there is little recourse.

"We’ve had serious talks with the union heads," he said. "They are pushing to get people to stop that practice, but on an individual level they can’t go out to the house and drag them out."

Although many of the absences are unexpected, Corbett acknowledged the agency, which does have an active website and social media account, should do a better job of conveying information to riders.

"If we’re not getting that word out, we need to improve our communication even when it’s very short notice," Corbett said.

Operating costs

Christie underfunded the agency for years, a point Murphy is often quick to make. And he has touted the $242 million he allocated to NJ Transit in his first budget. .

But, like Christie, Murphy appears ready to cannibalize where he can to support the agency.

The NJ Transit board of directors is scheduled to vote Wednesday on shifting $511 million from its capital budget to operations, which would be the biggest such raid in history to cover day-to-day costs, according to Bloomberg.

For all the headaches of commuting in and out of New Jersey, rail and bus riders have been spared a fare increase for the year. But it isn't guaranteed to last. Murphy said in a recent interview with The Record and NorthJersey.com that while he intends to keep fares flat in his next budget, "he can't promise that" they won't rise.